Sustainable Supply Chain in the Era of Industry 4.0 and Big Data: A Systematic Analysis of Literature and Research

• Main Authors: Ricardo Chalmeta, Nestor J. Santos-deLeón
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: sustainability; supply chain; Big Data; Industry 4.0
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4108

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) in the age of Industry 4.0 and Big Data is a growing area of research. However, there are no systematic and extensive studies that classify the different types of research and examine the general trends in this area of research. This paper reviews the literature on sustainability, Big Data, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management published since 2009 and provides a thorough insight into the field by using bibliometric and network analysis techniques. A total of 87 articles published in the past 10 years were evaluated and the top contributing authors, countries, and key research topics were identified. Furthermore, the most influential works based on citations and PageRank were obtained and compared. Finally, six research categories were proposed in which scholars could be encouraged to expand Big Data and Industry 4.0 research on SCS. This paper contributes to the literature on SCS in the age of Industry 4.0 by discussing the challenges facing current research but also, more importantly, by identifying and proposing these six research categories and future research directions.